Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

Justice League (Blu-ray Review) – The superhero team-up we’ve all been waiting for?

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Poor old Justice League. It’s a superhero team-up that fans have been waiting for decades for. When it was announced a couple of years ago it immediately sounded like it would be the biggest movie of 2018. However, following the lacklustre reception to the Warner/DC movies that led up to it (Wonder Woman excepted) and production problems including director Zack Snyder leaving due to personal problems and replacement Joss Whedon extensively retooling the movie only months before release, it certainly didn’t bode well. It also felt like Warner Bros. had slightly given up on it, or at least they failed to generate the sort of hype the movie needed, with a weak marketing campaign and little sense that this is what we’d all been waiting for.

As a result, it’s ended up as the lowest grossing of all the DCEU movies, behind even Suicide Squad. [Read more…]

The Big Sick (Blu-ray Review) – Race, religion and stand-up comedy, after your girlfriend gets put in a coma!

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Despite the presence of executive producer Judd Apatow (40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up) and plenty of ecstatic reviews, The Big Sick wasn’t the breakout international hit many had crossed their fingers it would be. That said, the fact a movie about a Pakistani-born man raised as a Muslim got a mainstream release seems like progress.

Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani) was born in Pakistan but was brought to the US by his parents when he was still a kid. Now he’s living between two worlds, with his family still keen for him to be a good Muslim and have an arranged marriage with a nice Pakistani girl, while he’s not sure what he thinks about God and wants to be a stand-up comic. [Read more…]

Man In An Orange Shirt (DVD Review) – Two gay lives, separated by 70 years

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It may be 2017 and gay marriage is legal in the UK, but it’s still incredibly rare for a mainstream British TV show to focus on gay characters and stories, especially a Sunday night BBC period mini-series. However, we got one with Man In An Orange Shirt, one of the centrepieces of the Gay Britannia season, marking 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of gay sex in England and Wales.

It’s also a somewhat unusual two-parter, as the first episode is set almost exclusively in the 1940s and 1950s, while the second episode leaps forward into the modern day. [Read more…]

Gold (Blu-ray Review) – Matthew McConaughey goes off in search of the precious metal

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Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey) comes from a prospecting family going back generations. However, by the 1980s looking for minerals has changed dramatically from the Gold Rush days, where it’s now controlled by big businesses, engineering, science and where billions of dollars are wagered on a claim paying off.

Due to a downturn in the economy, Kenny’s family business is in the gutter. He thinks he’s found his way back with a bit of a Hail Mary pass – a largely dismissed theory that there are huge reserves of gold in Indonesia. He teams up with the man who came up with the idea, Michael Acosta (Edgar Ramirez), and raises a small amount of funding – far less than they need – to try to get things started. [Read more…]

BearCity 3 (Iris Prize Festival Review)

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It’s back into the world of gay bears and their admirers in BearCity 3, which had its international premiere at this year’s Iris Prize Festival in Cardiff. Things have moved on from the last instalment, with Michael’s (Gregory Gunter) boyfriend having died. He’s trying to get his life back together with a new boyfriend, Dalton (Garikayi Mutambirwa), who loves him. However, Michael is having trouble letting go of the past and fully committing himself to this new future, which isn’t made easier when Dalton’s distrustful daughter arrives in the picture.

Fred (Brian Keane) and Brent (Stephen Guarino) meanwhile are preparing to have a baby – with Fred’s sister as the surrogate – but Fred’s worried Brent is too obsessed with finishing his Beartopia documentary and isn’t taking it seriously, while Brent thinks Fred is being too uptight and fearful. There’s also Roger (Gerald McCullouch), who’s finished with his boyfriend and feeling a bit lost, and so sets out to find the ex he still has feelings for. However, the young ex, Tyler (Joe Conti), has issues of his own, as his fireman boyfriend Jay (Tom Hooper) is hiding the fact he’s gay, afraid of what his colleagues will say. [Read more…]

The Huntsman: Winter’s War (Blu-ray Review)

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The Huntsman: Winter’s War was always going to have an uphill struggle with critics. Most of them didn’t particularly like the first film, Snow White And The Huntsman, and it was very difficult to see the point of making a follow-up. When Winter’s War arrived, it turned out not that many other people could see the point either, as it didn’t exactly set fire to the box office.

That’s almost a shame though, as the rubbish-ness of the first film is undoubtedly a drag on this movie and something it attempts to get around with only partial success. If this was standalone film without that millstone, and if a few structural issues were sorted out, it would have gotten a much reception. [Read more…]

High Rise (Blu-ray Review)

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Director Ben Wheatley was certainly ambitious when he decided to take on JG Ballard’s cult, 1975 novel, High Rise. It’s one of those books that for decades many have proclaimed unfilmable, but there’s no doubt Wheatley and his cast and crew have put their all into it.

Set in a dystopian version of the 1970s (or at least a hyper-real 1970s), Dr. Laing (Tom Hiddleston) moves into a new, high-rise tower – supposedly the pinnacle of modernist living. His apartment is on one of the middle floors, while the poorer people live near the bottom, and the higher up you go, the richer and more rarefied the people become. [Read more…]

Allegiant (Blu-ray Review)

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Poor old Divergent. Things started off well at the box office with the first movie, which helped Lionsgate decide they should expand their plans and turn the three books into four films. However, the second movie was slightly muted at the box office, and this one didn’t do well at all.

In Allegiant, Tris (Shailene Woodley) has opened the box, which suggests the city and its factions are part of an experiment, and that despite what they’ve been told, there is more to the world outside Chicago’s walls. Once out (despite many trying to stop them), Tris, Four (Theo James), her brother (Ansel Elgort) and Peter (Miles Teller), meet David (Jeff Daniels), the director of the experiment. He says they have been using Chicago and the factions to eventually find somebody genetically pure – the other people are defective – and that Tris may be that person. [Read more…]

Boys on Film 14: Worlds Collide (UK DVD Review)

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The world’s most successful short film collection is back once more, offering another selection of bite-sized, gay-themed movies for us to enjoy. But is this collection as good as earlier offerings? Take a look below to see our breakdown.

And you can see what we think of other Boys On Film releases here. [Read more…]

Mad Max: Fury Road (Blu-ray Review)

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I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people thought Mad Max: Fury Road was cursed to fail. Some didn’t think it should have been made at all, as they were worried it would sully the name of the originally Mel Gibson trilogy. However, George Miller wanted to make it, but it took years to get all the pieces together and Warner to give it the greenlight. Then, when it was finally ready to shoot, a massive storm blew most of the set away.

That cause a year long delay and a move to a different country. After it was eventually filmed, it took more than two years to get it into cinemas, with some wondering whether that due to the whole thing being a giant mess. However, when it finally arrived a lot of people had to admit they’d misjudged the film, as it’s a really good action movie that certainly deserves to have the Mad Max name. [Read more…]